El Maravedi eng
For three years, we worked with craftsmen and artists to restore our historic cave dwellings on the Finca Foyeta de Tur (near Alicante in the province of Valencia). The result: the aesthetics of natural materials with respect for history combined with luxury and a feel-good atmosphere.
The caves are located on a slope above our olive valley. The branching rooms and passageways have been repaired with ecological lime without chemical additives and plastered several times. Two very high cave rooms are lined with multi-layered clay bricks (domes) and plastered with lime.
The floor is hand-cast and stone-polished Tadelakt, also made of lime, sealed with ecological vegetable oils and waxes. Old elements from the past have been preserved, such as the old mangers, drinking troughs and the grain store.
The caves were probably inhabited for several hundred years until the 1980s. We found an old coin in the upper soil, a Maravedi, the Spanish currency around 1780 (Carlos III). This gave the caves their name: El Maravedí.
The entire complex covers an area of around 120 square metres, plus a large, triple-domed terrace, the artistic work of an almost lost craft. From there you can look out over the herb garden and the wide olive terraces down to the biotope with reeds and water-bearing ravines. The caves are also habitable in the Spanish winter (wood-burning stove in the fireplace room), because the temperature in the earth is always more or less the same. It is a cosy and wonderful place to feel good all year round.
A spacious swimming pool on almost the same level is a saltwater pool with correspondingly little chlorine. (This pool will not be filled with water until February, so no photos with water yet…)
Here, as in the other building, we work with off-grid solar energy, a solar system with a charging station for electric cars and electric hot water tank, dishwasher and a five-burner gas stove with electric oven.
The complex cannot be divided into individual residential units and is designed for a maximum of 6 people. We have three double bedrooms (two in the anteroom in front of the living caves and one of them in a cave with a round bed) and two bathrooms.
The rest of the caves are a library and experience rooms where you can read, listen and relax.
A museum room exhibits the ceramic and iron pieces found and shows photos of the restoration process.